The Frankfurt School’s mature critique reached its peak in the American exile period

Evidence

The critical shift in the Frankfurt School’s perspective, which these works expressed, was a product of their last decade in the United States, and thus makes a fitting conclusion to our study of the Institut’s American experience. Although it would be unfair to say that after their return to Germany, Horkheimer and Adorno did little.but work out the implications of these books - this would be especially misleading for Adorno, who continued to write at his characteristically furious pace - there is an element of truth in such an observation. Dialectic of the Enlightenment, Eclipse of Reason, and Minima Moralia presented so radical and sweeping a critique of Western society and thought that anything that followed could be only in the nature of a further clarification. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 771

Categorization

• XREF: This crystallizes the arc described across the earlier American-exile chapters — the 1940s writings as terminus of the Institute’s central intellectual production. — connects to: The exiles’ alienation from America both blinded and equipped the Frankfurt School’s critique. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 647; The Frankfurt School anticipated major American concerns by decades. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 887; The Frankfurt School’s scholarly moment ended but its reception lay ahead (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Frankfurt School theorists pioneered analysis of mass culture and working-class integration #expands (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 22
• The Frankfurt School anticipated major American concerns by decades. #complicates (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 887
• The Frankfurt School’s scholarly moment ended but its reception lay ahead #contradicts (0.75)